Germany: Park Wilhelmshöhe Wasserspiele

I'm back home of course, and this weekend I'm working on lots more images from my trip. I thought I would post a few here, rather that wait longer for some image galleries to be ready...

Park Wilhelmshöhe is in Kassel, my father's hometown. Twice a week, this 300 year old park has Wasserspiele, which in English maybe could be called a water festival or waterworks? Basically, there is a large reservoir on top of the 750 foot high hill where the Hercules statue is situated (above photo), and valves are opened letting water down a series of manmade falls, a reconstruction of a Roman aqueduct and more.

Here is a view from near the top, looking down towards Kassel, with Schloss Wilhelmshöhe (the palace) visible far below, centered in the frame...

The aqueduct before the water flow reached it...

Here it is with the water flowing and sadly, a gray cloudy sky...

It takes an hour for the water to make its way down to the pond by the palace, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, and crowds of people hike down from the top, following the flow. Here is one view, showing some of the people... and I was actually ahead of most of them, who were still on the way down from the top!

Here is the Teufelsbrücke (devil's bridge) with the water flow just starting and people packed on the bridge waiting...

Once the water flow reaches the bottom, another valve is opened and a huge fountain starts, spraying water about 150 feet high, all gravity fed, flowing down a big pipe from another reservoir part way up the hill...

Here is a telephoto silhouette from the previous day, taken at a 400mm equivalent focal length from right by the palace. The sun was setting almost right behind the Hercules statue, just a bit to the left...

And here is a telephoto view of the statue reflected in one of the palace's windows...

Lastly, here is a closer view of Schloss Wilhelmshöhe. Of course the sun came out and the light was nice after the Wasserspiele were over... just my luck! Well, I suppose the light was not too bad at the beginning either.